The Applications and Benefits of Topical Probiotics For Dogs with Tommy Shankland (Episode 32)

Does your dog have itchy, flaky, dry, or irritated skin?

Topical probiotics for dogs may be the solution you’re looking for.

In this episode of The Dog Show, I talk with Tommy Shankland from Skout’s Honor, an award-winning brand in the pet specialty industry.

Skout’s Honor offers Probiotic Grooming, Natural Cleaning, and Preventative Wellness products that are truly life-changing for dogs and the people who love them.

In the interview, we talk about the benefits of topical probiotics for dogs and the symptoms and conditions they can help alleviate.

Find out more about Skout’s Honor here:

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Will: This episode of “The Dog Show” features Tommy Shankland. Tommy is part of the Team at Skout’s Honor, an award-winning brand in the pet specialty industry. He’s also a Music Composer and Voice Over Actor. Skout’s Honor offers probiotic grooming, natural cleaning, and preventative wellness products that are truly life changing for dogs, and the people who love them. In the interview, we talk about the benefits of topical probiotics for dogs, and the symptoms and conditions they can help alleviate. Tommy, welcome to “The Dog Show” today. Thank you very much for coming on.

Tommy: Absolutely. Thank you for having me. Pleasure.

Will: Yeah, it’s a real pleasure having you on actually. I’m really excited today to talk about not just everything you’re doing at Skout’s Honor with topical probiotics and other cool stuff, but also a little bit about your history as well. You’ve got an interesting kind of journey to discuss from being a music composer and voiceover actor and all this cool stuff. So I think it’ll be a unique interview. So thanks for coming on.

Tommy: Absolutely. Thank you for having me again.

Will: So before we jumped on the call, you said you had two dogs of your own job. Do you wanna tell me a bit more about them.

Tommy: Yeah, so I have an Australian Shepherd named Phoebe. She actually does a lot of our we call it catalog work here at Skout’s Honor. And then I also have a more of like a Schnauzer mix. He’s a rescue that we actually got out of Mexico, which isn’t too far from us. And he’s just like a little Mexican street dog. And then we found him at a shelter in San Diego kind of when COVID actually first started and knew he needed a home and so we brought him home to us. And so I have Phoebe, the Australian shepherd and his name is Flynn. He’s my little Schnauzer terrier mix.

Will: Okay. So it was Phoebe… did you get a Phoebe from a breeder or from a rescue as well?

Tommy: So she… I wouldn’t necessarily say a breeder, but she was like someone was giving her up. And so we actually got her at a really young age. We found her on the internet. And just we’ve had her she just turned five not too long ago. So she’s in it for the long haul with us. But she’s a great dog.

Will: And how have you found those two mixing together? Like since they came in the house together?

Tommy: Yeah, great. They’re both pretty dog savvy. So Flynn doesn’t like people as much but as far as dogs goes or dogs go, he gets along really, really well with other dogs. And then he’s kind of like a one or two person kind of dog. So he likes me. He likes my lady, but he doesn’t really like anybody else. And then Phoebe just, I make the joke about it. But she’d betray me for the delivery man. She loves, loves, loves people and loves other dogs and really steps into like the motherly role when watching Flynn play with other dogs. She’ll kind of jump into the gate getting a little too rough here, but she’s a really awesome, awesome animal.

Will: That’s funny Phoebe sounds a bit like, my dog she should be best friends with anyone and everyone, which I guess is a little concerning at times, but. And I’m like Flynn actually. I’m happy just with my couple of people that I wanna hang out with.

Tommy: Yeah, funny story. Actually, Phoebe one time I came out of an old job I had. And there was someone that decided to make camp in my car. As I walked out of work, someone’s sitting in my car, and I’m with Phoebe. And Phoebe literally runs up and greets the person like, Oh, cool, you’re coming with us?” And I’m like, “No, I’m like, Phoebe get out of there. Like person get out of my car. What are you doing?” It was just kind of like she… I’m not kidding, she would betray me for the criminal that’s in my car. Like, she’s got a huge heart that one. So…

Will: Yeah, I guess it’s good from that perspective that they’ve got like, that great personality, I guess where they’re nice people. But you know [crosstalk 00:04:10]

Tommy: Not every dog’s got.

Will: The Aussie shepherds, I guess they don’t have any aggression at all or?

Tommy: No, I mean, she more she’ll express kind of I don’t wanna call it aggression, but she’ll grumble and complain. So like, if there’s something that you tell her to do that she doesn’t wanna do, you’ll kind of see her like, “Augh, I don’t wanna do this.” And that’s kind of the extent of her aggression. She might get too playful with other dogs but I mean, I think that’s just the inner beast instinct kind of with animals which sometimes they get too aggressive it just kind of happens but as far as like having like, an aggressive personality or kind of like that just that backbone she’s… there’s not one in her. She’s a beautiful soft soul and full of…

Will: I wonder if Flynn’s tendency to like smaller groups is kind of a terrier. Sorry, the [inaudible00:04:56.357]. Because I’ve heard of that. Yeah.

Tommy: Yeah, a one-person puppy. Yeah, and because we don’t know what his dad was, and he kind of has this wire coat. So he has kind of a Schnauzer body and look to him. But then he has kind of this wire coat that like, I don’t know if it was like Brussels Griffin or maybe like a Jack Russell, but he has kind of that wiry coat to him. So we’re not sure who his dad was we know that the mom was a white Schnauzer, and he’s got no white in his coloring. But we know the mom was a white Schnauzer. So we have that dialed in. But whatever his dad was, is unknown to us at this time.

Will: Good to have a bit of mystery in there but anyway. I could talk about dogs all day. So maybe we need to move on to the serious stuff. But before we jump into the really serious stuff, I’d like to hear more about how you ended up working for Skout’s Honor. So Skout’s Honor is obviously a dog probiotic brand. And you’ve got also a whole range of products, which help with dog grooming, and different things like that. But you personally are a music composer and a voiceover actor as well. So how did all of that happen?

Tommy: Life’s kind of funny, I feel like we live 10 of them in our actual lifetime you know. My background is I’m originally from Chicago, which is just out there in the Midwest, Illinois. And I moved to California, more or less to pursue those things. And at that point, I was doing a lot more composition, a lot more music composition, and then a buddy of mine, and I started like a little production company, we’d go in and kind of offer a full service. So we’d go in and maybe film a commercial for you, we’d then bring it back to posts and we’d obviously edit it and then I’d actually compose music for it. And that way, you kind of get like this full package deal out of just the two of us. And when we moved to California, it just, you know, we got some jobs, but it wasn’t kind of enough to make ends meet. And I had already had like a background in bartending. So I had started bartending kind of locally. And then one thing kind of led to another local brewery had just opened up. And they had an incredible product that if you’re familiar with beer in the States, it’s kind of a big deal. And they had this product that really stood out. And so I wanted to work with them. And so I actually ended moving over to the brewery. And long story short, one of the founders of Skout’s Honor had been like, a regular at the brewery, a local guy more or less. And he had come to the brewery several times and him and I had kind of gotten to know each other over the years. And he had a position open up after a couple years and kind of gave me some tests throughout the years, just kind of, I guess to test my wit’s. But then one day, he’s like, “I want you to come interview for us.” And so I did. And kind of the rest is history.

And I still do music all the time. I don’t perform as much, I guess anymore, but I still write all the time. And I have a two and a half year old son now. So he gets the better end of my voiceover acting with just kind of the impressions and stuff that I’ll do with maybe some of the characters he watches. But yeah, it’s kind of a funny story. I mean, you know, obviously a lot thicker than that. But that’s kind of the bit I’ll give you, but it’s just funny, like how life works.

Will: That’s the overview.

Tommy: Yeah, yeah, the overview.

Will: Now, it sounds like I mean, it’s a fun story, because I guess like, from my perspective, I’m looking, I’m thinking music. I’m thinking dogs, I’m thinking beer. I mean, what else could you ask for?

Tommy: Right, perfect. I lived three incredible lifetimes.

Will: Yeah. Yeah. Actually, you mentioned you had a two and a half-year-old son, how does he go with the dogs? How did the dogs go with him?

Tommy: So he’s at this point, he’s kind of that loud two year old. So they’re like, half the time they’re like, “We want nothing to do with you just because you’re screaming or something.” But they cuddle up with them. Flynn’s still kind of a little standoffish just because he’s still a puppy. We got him when he was five months old. So he’s kind of like and you could tell something was off with whatever his upbringing was, or whatever the story that Flynn holds from when he was in Mexico to getting stateside, something’s off. So he’s kind of a little standoffish towards a little one. But Phoebe is like, he’s his pillow. I mean, he like, he can cuddle Phoebe, he attempts to ride Phoebe. They’re a couple peas in a pod. And again, Phoebe’s just got that huge heart to where she’s just, you know, you can tell at times, she’s like, “Oh, my gosh, too much for me little one.” But she’ll let him like, they’ll just kind of just cuddle together and hang out and it’s pretty cute.

Will: Yeah, I think it’s great to have… I didn’t have any children of my own. But I see my nephews and stuff play with my dog. And I just think it’s great to have them exposed to dogs at a young age. And you got to be careful, of course and monitor situation and be smart about it. But I think it’s a good way to, I guess help the dog get used to kids, but also help the kids get used to the dog as they’re growing up?

Tommy: Yeah. Yeah, it’s important. And we’re dog people. So that matters, too, because they’re always like, feel the kind of a dog around as we progress through life. And I hope one day that he gets a dog of his own too.

Will: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Okay, so tell me more about topical probiotics. What are topical probiotics?

Tommy: Sure. Let’s dive in. So I wanna kind of take a step back with that, too. So we’ll start with probiotics. So probiotics are beneficial bacteria. That’s just kind of the nutshell of it. So anything beneficial and bacteria driven can be a probiotic. So what topical probiotics are basically they’re topically applied probiotics. So it’s a way or a format that of which you can take these beneficial bacteria, get them into a sustainable state, and then obviously be able to apply them to where you can see then benefit on your skin or coat in this case, to where your good bacteria can start to thrive on your skin and coat. So what Skout’s Honor has done very uniquely is our delivery system. Because with a lot of probiotics and people that are familiar with probiotics, to keep them stable, you need to like, refrigerate them or have them in some type of dormant state because otherwise, it’s a living thing. I mean, it can go bad.

So what we have is we have a little encapsulant, full keeper green, and that encapsulates our probiotics and actually keeps them in a dormant state. So we’re actually able to have them as a dormant probiotic in our product. And then when you actually use some of our shampoos, or some of our other daily use sprays or kind of any of our support items, that delivery system that makes it so unique, when you apply the product to the animal, that little delivery system will essentially dry up and break down. And then that’s when you actually start to see cultivation of the probiotic itself. So you actually see full cultivation within about 72 hours. And what they do is they basically start to combat bad bacteria that can cause I mean, the simplest of ways itchy skin, dry skin, hotspots, but it’s just a unique delivery system that makes this product so special. So you don’t have to refrigerate your bottle of shampoo per se. But yeah, probiotics can be like a beneficial bacteria. And then we use just like a topical applicable system.

Will: Yeah, that’s interesting, because I guess I’m thinking of probiotics from a human perspective. And you know, my wife takes a daily probiotic, which we keep in the fridge, and it helps with gut health and skin health and all sorts of stuff, hair health. Yeah, I guess I didn’t think that the need of keeping it in the fridge is because it’s a living organism, then I mean, that sounds like a great technology to be able to transfer that into something which is applicable in a bottle or anything like that.

Tommy: Yeah, it’s a really, really unique way to do it, and we are depending on it. And it’s kind of a big deal. I mean, we’re the first ones to do it in the pet space too. And it’s easy to make the assumption that like, topically or like, I guess ingesting a probiotic, obviously, that’s gonna balance the bacteria of your gut, your gut health our intestinal health. And with the skin being such a large organism that a lot of times, it’s easy to kind of overlook what we are in a way. So it’s like, we kind of address like your inner health. And we may do certain things like washing our face, or stuff like that to address like our outer health, but like your skin, the overall skin is a whole package, and you kind of need to address all of it. And with humans, we’re lucky to where we have like an acid mantle, which is kind of like our layer defense against our environment. Whereas pets don’t have that, or a lot of animals don’t have that. So with us having that layer defense, and them not they’re kind of a lot more vulnerable to their environment, or just different things that can affect them as far as bad bacteria. And with a lot of breeds, it’s become hereditary issues, like, with Schnauzers, they can have like that dry, oily coat and like, tennis almost contradicts itself, but they have like an oily EC coat, and they’ll be super flaking scratchy. And that is unfortunately, like, a hereditary thing at this time.

So we can address that issue kind of with an old-world address that medicine to where you’re actually getting in there and rebalancing why their skin is oily, and why they might be scratching in the first place. Because hereditarily they’re used to having an influx of bad bacteria that causes that stuff. So this is just another way to kind of give them the best advantage of having the best and most healthy life they possibly can. So I personally feel like what we’re doing is awesome, awesome work. And it’s the education side of it is kind of the biggest curve, because a lot of people don’t know just as like a lot of people ask like, “What are probiotics?” And until we started kind of doing your own research or educating our own communities, it’s gonna be one of those things to where it’s like, we got to get as many people educated on this as possible, because the benefits from it are incredible.

Will: Well, I think it’s helpful to know yeah, as you mentioned, that education piece and understanding actually what’s happening, because from an adult grinders perspective thing, “Okay, my dogs got itchy skin or flaky skin, or they’re scratching all the time,” you’re looking at the symptoms. So you’re looking for some sort of solution. But I think more and more, I’m seeing lots of trends in the dog space in general, not just with skin health owners wanting to become more informed about how they can solve issues, rather than just looking at those symptoms, like as you would do with yourself if you’ve got something wrong with you right?

Tommy: Right. Exactly. And dogs or pets have kind of an issue being able to tell us that, you know, being expressed that there’s an issue with them or they have a problem or an influx of bad bacteria like how they, you know, they can’t quite put it to words whereas like with us, we can kind of identify it, our body talks to us. So with them, it’s like we kind of have to be just the best pet parent we possibly can and kind of try and pick up on these things until like, nightly time with them, whether it be just kind of like letting them lay in your lap and kind of going through their coat maybe a little bit. That’s when you’ll start to pick up on like, maybe mites, or fleas, or ticks, or any of that thing that could be an issue without like that close interaction, you’re just gonna see them scratching. Like, it’s hard to kind of pick up on it and like scratching, especially for like, their hereditary issue is like, “Oh, yeah, that’s just him, he just scratches a lot. “It’s like, there could be an underlying problem there. So to identify and address it is our hope and goal.

Will: So before we jump into the application, and like, actually, once you’ve noticed the symptoms and trying to treat those symptoms with probiotics, what are some of those symptoms that people would see in their dog so we spoke kind of about the dog scratching or itching? What else would there be?

Tommy: So it could be an inflammation of sorts. So if you kind of notice they’re in pain, or babying a certain side or a certain area, the paws actually, and this is so common in breeds, if you actually smell your dog’s paws, and they kind of smell like corn chips, there were some people that’s a fine smell. But that’s actually an influx of yeast. So that could be a sign of like maybe an influx of yeast in their paws typically the paws you’ll see at the most, but just because it’s, you know, you smell it most in the paws doesn’t mean it’s not over the body. And they tend to have like an oily coat. So you actually notice like their hair is kind of maybe greasy. And that can be specific to coat types. So like maybe more your Schnauzer breeds if they have like a good hair, or maybe some of your show breeds like, Poodles, Yorkies, you kind of notice more of an oily coat in them with like your bully breeds. So American Bulldogs, Pit bulls, they kind of can tend to have like an oilier coat too, that is influx of yeast, any flaky skin, dry skin, if you notice that they just have kind of flakes in their coat, dandruff, that kind of thing.

And then yeast infections, which are really really common, especially like in folds, or like underarms in that can kind of be like red, inflamed skin. And that’s just easy ways to identify some of your simpler things. But smell, scratching. If you notice, like, you give them bath and they kind of smell right away, that often can be something that there’s an influx of bad bacteria going on. There are many different ways you can identify it. And it’s just you know, getting to know your animal.

Will: Yeah, a lot of the things you’re saying I’m like, I have a French Bulldog myself, who have a lot of hereditary issues. She has all sorts of environmental allergies, that she caused a lot of these symptoms that you’re referring to red paws, sometimes flaky skin, there’s yeast buildup in the ears, because they’re exposed, there’s the wrinkle issues as well, like they needed to maintain them all the time, keep them dry, because they can create infections and all sorts of irritations in there as well. So in that scenario, I guess I don’t want to be too specific about me, but how would I go about not knowing those symptoms are already there, and we try and treat them with regular pour soaps and medicated shampoo bars and things like, that, as well as some other medications on like, a regular basis to maintain, like, to kind of control the allergies, but from a topical probiotics perspective, how do you go about trading those? Is it kind of a daily application? Are you I mean, yeah, you tell me.

Tommy: So there’s a couple ways. Yeah, so you can address it to where we obviously we have shampoos, so like the shampoo is kind of I would express it as like, kind of your deep clean. If you know the dog has like, a chronic condition to where like, if you know there’s an issue right, you’re able to identify the fact there’s an issue what we wanna do is you kind of wanna address it like an issue like, you would with like a prescribed products, you’d give the dog a bath, like once every three days or so for about two weeks. And then you would address it once a week after that. And then as you see progression, you can kind of space it out to like a regular bath cycle. With certain breeds, you wanna bath them every two weeks regardless. With other breeds, like, the Australian Shepherd, she tends to kind of clean herself and she has a coat that sheds. So we give her a bath maybe once every three weeks, maybe once a month, maybe even once every five weeks. With that, the animal does not have to have an issue to use this product. What it offers is obviously a benefit to if there is an issue but what it mainly offers is preventative for these issues. So you can kind of build up the good bacteria to where if there is an environmental allergies or in which we can’t control so if there’s fertilizer in the grass or there Scotchgard in the carpet or Scotchgard on the couch, those are things that like, it’s just part of who we are as humans to have that stuff kind of around us because of us and our lifestyles.

So not being able to control those certain things. You can at least go at it with giving the animal a defensive and preventative chance against something happening. And then obviously this works as a treatment as well. To where like, if you are able identify those things. We also have daily use products so you don’t have to give the dog a bath every day right? Our daily use products also pack that probiotic to where you can actually use them daily without having to give the dog a bath. So whether that be spraying our sprays on the dog daily which you can get a nice fragrance version towards like, the dog smells fresh every day. Or you have sort of anti-itch sprays which can also address for use of a daily use spray. We even have a detangling spray with probiotic to wear as humans in our staff, we use it as hand lotion. Because these are not bias probiotics. I mean, they’re good bacteria, they work on animals, they work on humans, we all use it, it is what it is. But you can actually gain those benefits as well.

So you can use that detangling spray as obviously a tangling preventative, you could use it detainees for the anti-static spray. There’s benefits to it. But obviously the underlining thing being those probiotics and balancing that benefits bacteria. And so we try to make it as convenient as possible to where, yes, you wanna give the dog a nice deep clean bath and apply that probiotic treatment. But you can also address it with some of our daily sprays some of our daily use items, we make an ear cleaner specifically for combating bacteria in the ear, yeast being one of the most common if not the most common bacteria in the ear. And what it does, it’ll actually prevent and combat yeast in the ear for up to two weeks without using any harsh chemicals. There’s no harsh smell, it kind of smells…it’s fragrant less but smells kind of like raw dough. And that can actually address those issues to where like, now ear infections can be a thing of the past, with some of our sprays, you can actually lift up the folds of a bulldog specifically and rub the stuff in between the folds. And then that will actually start to create like a good biome or good bacteria in those areas to where then you don’t have to make sure they’re dry all the time you have good bacteria going in there.

And naturally as you would kind of attend to your pup, you would start to see those benefits kind of becoming a thing of the past. And just like an issue that you almost forget that that happened just because you’re using the right product, which in a way makes it lower maintenance for you as well.

Will: Yeah, so what I’m hearing you say is like, if you’ve got an issue, it’s probably an issue which is built up over a period of time, right? Especially if you’re seeing these symptoms every day. So what you need to do is kind of do a big flush initially, which you mentioned is like, a bath every three days or something like that for a couple of weeks. And then you can move towards more of a maintenance approach, looking at how you can maintain things moving forward, getting that healthy bacteria on the skin and things like that.

Tommy: Exactly. And it’s one of those things too, it’s designed to where like, you can’t quite overdo it, we’ve had people give their dog a bath every day. And obviously you wanna avoid that because that can in turn dry out the skin. But how this works is it actually balances those bacterias to where then the skin is actually nourished in that process. And so, like, I said, with a chronic condition, you kind of wanna space it out just because you wanna give the probiotics the chance to cultivate a little bit, so you don’t have to give the dog a bath every day. But you can if you need to.

Will: It’s good to know that you’re happy to put the products you’re using on the dogs, you know, you’re happy you use them yourself because I think that’s a big thing in the dog spaces. And it doesn’t have as much regulation right? As the human industry. But I think that’s catching up in recent years. And as we mentioned that owners are wanting to be more informed about the things they’re feeding their dogs, the things they’re giving their dogs, so to know that your products are good to go for humans, as well as dogs, would be comforting. I think for people.

Tommy: There is not a product that we have that I have not tested or tried myself. So the ear cleaner I’ve used I’ve eaten every one of our we have wellness chews I’ve eaten every one of those. Those aren’t my favorite. Our shampoo conditioner combination I use in my shower, it’s what I use on my hair. And then like, our detangling spray works incredible, like, I said I have body lotion, our deodorizer we have people that actually buy us deodorant. We even have people that have gone as far as taking our detangling spray and using it as a dermatitis lotion on themselves because it’s essentially cheaper than their dermatitis lotion. So they’re just using natural bacteria to combat that. And it’s just one of those things where you, you know, it’s no chemicals, you’re just you can consciously go at it. Like, “I feel good about this.”

Will: So the detangling spray, that’s the longer hair braids, you poodles that gets in mats and that kind of stuff to get regular grooming. So does that helped us kind of smooth out the knots and things like that.

Tommy: Yeah, kind of picture like, silk is a spray, but it does we have a lot of grooming facilities that we work with closely. And what a lot of the groomers can do is they’ll use it as like a pre-bath treatment. So like, let’s say if dog comes in, and maybe it’s a rescue, right, which this is probably the most common case and the rescue has been ignored. And it just has heavy heavy matting, they’ll take this spray and they actually will start it pre-bath you actually kind of put a little in, see we can kind of get brushed out if anything gets some stuff a little bit loose, they’ll then go into the bath process and then they’ll actually use that same product that detangling spray post-bath to actually finish out the groom. It is considered like a leave-in conditioner so you can actually leave it on the coat you don’t need to rinse it out. And there’s benefits there with it. But ultimately, yes, it’s designed to kind of help with heavy matting tangles, especially like behind the ears in certain breeds like they’ll, you know, they scratch their that can get pretty mad at underarms on the tuckus of some of your like Aussie breeds. There’s longer hair there. So you just kind of help with that keeping that matting away, and then what it actually does, it’ll help kind of coat the hair to where the matting and stuff doesn’t come back as rapid or as frequent. So then you have kind of a longated time between. So especially in the groom, if you have your pup on like a regular schedule to maybe they get groomed every four weeks or so, you’ll notice that like, maybe there’s matting by the time you bring it in that for weeks with using this product, you’ll notice that there won’t be matting, like, you’ll actually have a longated time between the next time they mat.

Will: Yeah, that’s good to know. Because I know that there are some occasions when there’s a really heavy mat that groomers or the owner may need to resort to shaving their hair, which is the absolute last resort that you wanna do. So if you can kind of prevent that at some point with using a spray, that would be helpful.

Tommy: Mm-hmm.

Will: Yeah. So tell me more about the backstory of Skout’s Honor. So and let’s jump into that. So how did all of this happen? You’ve got all these fantastic products that we’ve been talking about and they’re natural, they’re good for humans, as well as dogs, and they’re also solving a whole ton of issues that dog owners face. But how did Skout’s Honor start? And what little paddle to get to here?

Tommy: Well, would you believe me if I told you it was two buddies over a beer?

Will: Well, it sounds like it because now probably at the other brewery, you’re working. Yeah.

Tommy: So well, it’s our founders are making Brock and Pete Sterling. And they wanted to make something that was environmentally friendly and socially conscious. So that we’re following those guidelines. And we’re gonna be like a healthy brand around that. And then they wanted to make a product that was obviously highly beneficial for both the pet owner as well as the pet themselves to ultimately make their lives easier and better and healthier. So that’s the brainchild behind it. We started initially in 2015, with cleaning products, which we have and we use a technology called bio core, which is also unique to us. And it uses plant surfactants to basically help get heavy matter like, heavy stains or like, stubborn stains or new stains or anything like blood grease wine out of your surfaces. So whether you were having a glass of wine, your dog bumped into you and you’re having a spill on your couch, you can address that with these our initial core branded products. And that’s where we started. And then that was just to kind of make that environment around your home a little bit easier to clean up the messes a lot more convenient, we make a laundry booster so you can have with your laundry to help get that heavy grease out of your clothes. And it doesn’t have to be cut specific by any means.

I’ve had people get like, floor glue off shoes, like, and it’s a natural product that like I said, just uses plants. And it’s pretty incredible stuff. And that’s where we started. And then we stepped into the probiotic pet space because there was a need for it. I mean, like, there is a need for it. Like we have cases where like, people are putting their pups on steroids. And there’s the time in place absolutely. I won’t pull anything from it. But sometimes that stuff doesn’t work. And sometimes people don’t wanna go that route, they wish there was a natural route, they wish there was like a higher-performing natural route. That’s what Skout’s Honor provides. We address issues the natural way as best as we possibly can without losing the performance that people make the assumption on because there’s no chemicals involved. So it’s like you wanna take and get a stain on the carpet, the mind is like, “Oh, there’s a chemical for that, or there’s a cleaner for that.” And often it’s driven by a chemical. And then people think, “Oh, natural, it’s gonna lose some of that performance.” That’s not what we’re doing. We’re making high-performing natural products that make your day, your pup’s day a little bit easier, so that you guys can just live your happier and healthier life. And that was supposed to be the idea behind the brand. And that’s what ultimately is the groundwork of Skout’s Honor and what we are so so proud to be able to kind of offer to the community.

Will: Yeah, that’s great to know there’s an alternative out there to, you know, use steroids or your artificially made products, because I guess there is that you tend to do it to yourself or your dog or your pet, whatever pet you’ve got, you know, applying those things. You don’t wanna be doing that long term, right? More of a short term thing. But with probiotics and natural ingredients, he’d be more than happy to, I think do that over a long period of time.

Tommy: Yeah, absolutely.

Will: Cool. So one last question before we find out where people should go to find out more about Skout’s Honor, but you’ve got this thing called the Paw Pledge and the Rescue Bank. So I wanted to hear a little bit about that.

Tommy: Yeah, so this is another thing that a lot of us are passionate about. It also makes the brand a little bit more special, every bottle that we sell. And I mean that every single bottle that we sell, we donate a day’s worth of food to an animal in need. So we partnered with rescuebank.org to do this. So we basically give the donation and then they make it happen for us. But every single bottle that is sold through Skout’s Honor and that could be at retail that could be through our website. It could be through Amazon wherever you end up finding us. All that goes to a good cause of every single bottle sold, we donate a day’s worth of food. And so it’s just one of those things you got to get back because people need it pups needed.

Will: Absolutely. So rescuebank.org but perhaps we can find out more about that charity, but are they working with shelters and things like that? Or where are they distributing the funds?

Tommy: Yeah, basically shelters and I wanna say globally it could be domestic I’d actually don’t know that up top my head but yeah, they work with just different charities and shelters and stuff with just like pups in need.

Will: Okay great.

Tommy: Wherever there’s the demand.

Will: Well, it’s good to know that you’ve got that cause behind the brand as well because it just makes it a little bit easier for people to hand over their money even though they know they’re getting a great product also to help out other pets and animals too. So…

Tommy: Mm-hmm.

Will: Where should people go to find out more about Skout’s Honor their website is the best place or?

Tommy: Yeah. Yeah, I mean like, we have blogs we have different facts and common ask questions available at skoutshonor.com. We’re gonna have kind of anything you’d wanna know from there we have an incredible customer service team too. So if you have kind of deeper questions that maybe you can’t find the answer to you know, always reach out to services at skoutshonor.com we do spell Skout’s a little bit unique so it’s S-K-O-U-T-S H-O-N-O-R. But that would be kind of your best outlets there is a fact page like I said there’s a blog page to where we address kind of common issues right now we’re on the Hot Topic of probiotics naturally but like with the winter months coming up here in the states of like, how harsh these winters can typically be and kind of how to best approach it. So tons of tips and stuff on there. And like, I said at anytime you can reach out to our team, they’re awesome.

Will: Yeah, perfect so Skouts with a K I’ll share the link to the website in the show notes everyone can go and check out everything cool you’re doing look at Paw Pledge check out the products and everything we’ve discussed today. But Tommy, thanks so much for coming on “The Dog Show Today.” I’ve had a lot of fun I’ve learned way more than I thought I would about probiotics. I was like, “How much could they know about probiotics?” But it’s opened my eyes a lot to the opportunities out there for me and for other dogs that are of looking for solutions for these type of like, chronic issues they might be facing with their dogs.

Tommy: Awesome. I appreciate you having me on and I’m glad to kind of help educate the community and let’s do this again. I mean, I have more I could say.

Will: Always. I’m always happy to talk about dogs so I’m sure we’ll sort that out.

Tommy: Definitely. All right.

Will: Thanks Tommy.

Tommy: Take care.

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